Surprise Cooking Adventure: OMG Pumpkin Spice Cake Swiss Roll Crumble Blah

Yes. Many of you have dreamed of this moment for so long, the moment where I bring you an impromptu Cooking Adventure. I had thought that maybe my cooking and baking skills had surpassed the early years of stupid screw ups in the kitchen. Since moving into the new house and having much more time and space to be creative in cooking, I’ve had very few run ins that have mandated a blog post to explain what the hell happened while trying to make something delicious. Today though…today’s result was so ugly, I couldn’t help but share.

With the evenings dipping into cooler temperatures here in Maine, I’ve had a huge hankering for everything autumnal. That includes baking pumpkin, squash, apple, and pecan creations, snuggling in blankets, wearing chunky sweaters and plaid shirts, and dreaming up decorations for eventual Halloween celebrations.

I decided before the weekend had even started that I was going to either make a pumpkin swiss roll or a pecan pie. Both are among my favorite fall dessert items and my sweet tooth would have been happy with either. On Monday, I opted for the pumpkin swiss roll idea. After returning home from grocery shopping, I turned on Spotify, unpacked ingredients and looked up a recipe. I pulled this one from Tasty. Now, disclaimer: this is a perfectly fine recipe…if one follows the directions. I clearly did not. I thought I was better than this.

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Makin’ Biscuits: New Cooking Adventures

Cooking Adventures: Preheating The Oven Like A Boss

Hello! Remember back in January when I said I was hoping to write all kinds of new Cooking Adventures this year? Well, that hasn’t exactly happened. It doesn’t mean that I haven’t been cooking new and exciting things in my kitchen, it just means that not all of them have been worthy tales to tell on the blog. And I’ve been busy; super busy. But I’m not going to get into all that business now. Instead, I’ll tell you the horrifying tale of trying to make this blasted grapefruit pound cake.

Now, the first thing to keep in mind is that this pound cake is delicious and was well worth all the effort it took to put it together. I’d found the recipe on Pinterest not too long ago and was interested in the idea of making some kind of dessert/breakfast crossover that didn’t have any chocolate. My hope was to give my parents some of it and neither of them eat chocolate.

The original recipe comes from FakeGinger. Thank you to Amanda for sharing the recipe with everyone.

That Time I Accidentally Stabbed My Hand While Chipping Stale Brownies Out Of A Baking Pan a.k.a. New Cooking Adventures

Don’t let the title fool you; this entry in itself is not a Cooking Adventure yet. But I have toyed with the possibility of bringing back video Cooking Adventures this year and the desire to do it is slowly overtaking me. One of the biggest reasons that I didn’t try to do them last year were because I was in the process of buying a new house and since I’ve moved into said house, I’ve been coming to grips with all of its various quirks. The kitchen is one of these.

It’s a beautiful kitchen. There are open beams, a large window overlooking the lawn, plenty of counter space, and lots of light and warmth…in the summer. In the winter, it has become the coldest room in the house due to a lack of insulation and the fact that it was an added room to the 1890 cape. So, in order to ensure that it’s warm enough for me to spend time in there, I’ve had to put up an insulated curtain over the big, light-bringing window and put on a space-heater. Filming in such a dark room isn’t very easy.

Cooking Adventure: Soft Chocolate Mocha Cookie Bites

God, how I’ve missed this.

It’s been months…MONTHS since I’ve had time to lose myself in the groove of making something intricate in the kitchen. Of course, I’ve cooked the occasional steak or chicken dish for dinner but never one I felt I could call truly creative. This is the first time in months I’ve had fun baking something.

As I’ve stated in nearly all my blogs this year, I’ve been going through some stressful changes. I’m a week away from closing on my first house and have been feverishly working on my novella, “The Collection” in order to have it ready to print in July. Today in particular, I was really feeling the pressure. I’ve been packing my apartment up bit by bit for over a week, my life slowly being boxed away and the place I’ve called home for the last five years is beginning to feel less and less so.

Similarly at my job, one of my wonderful co-workers is moving on to bigger and brighter things with a new job. I decided very last minute that I’d make him something as a going away gift. I’d seen a recipe for some Mocha Crinkle Cookies on Pinterest yesterday and decided that those would be the perfect thing to try. They are an uncomplicated cookie, one that doesn’t take too long to make and that I don’t have to stress about as far as clean up is concerned.

And damn if they’re not f-ing delicious.

The Mounds of the Baskervilles Cooking Adventure

I know. You don’t have to tell me. I’m a horrible person.

I said (a while ago) that I’d have this cooking adventure up for all of you to enjoy and…well…it’s taken this long.

Earlier in February, I decided I was going to embark on a hobby of candy-making. I didn’t have just any candy in mind, though. I wanted to create a somewhat healthier (if that’s even possible) replica of the beloved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. And I succeeded. Ish. I made some lovely almond butter cups which were pretty popular with my coworkers, and some white chocolate almond butter cups which my family adored.

Eventually, I grew bored with the almond butter (I still have LOADS of it left) and decided to try a different filling. I happened to have a lovely bag of shredded coconut just waiting to be used. Combining it with some sweetened condensed milk created a nice textured filling for these sweet treats. They taste pretty similar to the Mounds candy, the one that I didn’t appreciate until I was much older. Believe me, once you try these decadent bites of coconut heaven, you’ll be howling for some of your own.

Check below for how to make these for yourself!

Hello 2016! January Update!

That’s right. We’re looking at you…

HAPPY NEW YEAR (a bit late) and welcome to the Monstrum Chronicles blog! Here’s hoping you all had a fun and festive holiday season and a wonderful start to the new year. 2016 promises to be an exciting year! I’m looking forward to making a few changes in my writing career as well as here at the blog and in my personal life as well.

First off, I would honestly like to be able to attend a few more shows this year in lieu of the fact that they are the best way to get my books into reader’s hands. 2nd, I’d like to focus on trying to market my books to a few more brick and mortar businesses here in Maine. I’ve been a salesperson for several years and yet it’s always so much harder when you are trying to sell something you’ve created yourself. This fear has made it difficult for me to take those steps forward. Not this year though. I’m going to give it my all here.

Read on to find out what 2016 has in store for the Monstrum Chronicles blog!

The Cranberry Adventures of Robin Hood

Ooo-de-lally! We’re back for our final Literary Cooking Adventure of 2015. Embarking to the wilds of Sherwood Forest on this culinary tribute to Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, I decided to attempt a family recipe for a scrumptious cranberry coffee cake. It’s by far one of my favorite things to eat and by the end of the video, your mouth will be watering. You’ll want to try this one yourself!

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Cooking Adventure without some kind of catastrophe. Thankfully, there was nothing major. My only true aggravation came while trying to measure the baking soda. I lost my measuring spoon and resorted to using a regular spoon…which doesn’t fit into the baking soda box. Lots of cursing ensued and I ended up shaking the box like it was a maraca. As such, there might have been some extra baking soda and that might have made the cake a bit more solid than it was supposed to be. No matter.

It still tasted delicious!

Want to make this cranberry coffee cake for Christmas morning? Scroll down to see the magic!

Angel Food Cake and Demons Cooking Adventure

This week we take on the dastardly Illuminati as we pay tribute to Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. I attempt to create a baking decadence that (for all in intents and purposes) probably shouldn’t exist. It’s called the Heaven and Hell Cake. A mouthwatering combination of Angel Food cake layers with Devil Food Cake layers. Smothered in between is an unbelievably delicious peanut butter ganache and dripped over it is a smooth chocolate coating. It has you saying, “Oh my ganache.”

…Well, almost.

My take on this fine cake was ruined by the angel food cake. This is my second attempt trying to make it and I once again failed…miserably. But I had to complete it so I resorted to the wonderful Hannaford’s Supermarket to supply me with a cake that was actually edible.

Somehow, whenever I try to make angel food cake, I always have the same problem. I get to the point in the recipe where I’m supposed to beat egg whites and sugar together until they form “stiff peaks”. And so I beat, and beat, and beat. I beat the heaven out of those egg whites until they are no longer angelic in the least bit. No stiff peaks form. Ever. When I try to go ahead with the recipe, I end up with this strange marshmallowy concoction of God knows what that isn’t even…real. It’s just a brick of gross goo with a hard crust. Eww.

Basically, what I’m saying is that if you want to try this recipe for yourself, you’re going to want to hop over and check out Whisk Kid for this recipe so that you make it the right way. Because by the end of this video…my cake looks ridiculous, even though it tastes amazing.

Stay tuned for the next Literary Cooking Adventure!

~KSilva

License to Chili: A James Bond Literary Cooking Adventure

So, here’s the scoop. On this most special Cooking Adventure in tribute of the James Bond series by Ian Fleming… Nothing, I mean, nothing went right from the start. Due to the time change, I forgot all about losing an hour of daylight in the afternoon on the day I was cooking and unfortunately couldn’t finish filming it. Working the next few days in a row ensured that I wouldn’t have time to finish and make it look seamless. On top of all of that, I ran out of batteries in the camera while filming so I had to film a new intro today as well as some last minute scenes.

The flavorful turkey chili promised in the video ended up being very delicious with the exception of the beans. I opted for dried beans instead of canned this time. I ALWAYS get canned. Turns out that there’s a whole process to cooking the beans first before adding them to the chili…or one is supposed to do the entire thing in a crockpot and have it cook for hours upon hours. Because time was rather short, the beans ended up being a bit chewy and I’m not at all proud of that.

Last but certainly not least, I lost the thumb drive with all of the footage on it and spent several hours acting like a crime scene investigator in my own house while I searched for it. Turns out it was in my purse the entire time. Herp a derp.

Because I’m running behind on time once again, and I still have about a billion pages to write on my NaNoWriMo (Book 4 of the Monstrum Chronicles), I will be including a link to the original recipe for this chili. Definitely check it out and if you plan on making it yourself, I’d advise CANS of beans. So much easier for those of us who like easy in the kitchen.

Boom. Check out this chili recipe!

Enjoy and make sure you watch til the end. There’s an extra fun blooper there for you.

~KSilva